McGeever avoids jail for wasting Garda time

‘If I send him to prison, taxpayer will have to pay for his upkeep’

Former property developer Kevin McGeever has been given a suspended two-year sentence for wasting Garda time by making false reports about being kidnapped at gunpoint three years ago in a bid to dodge his creditors.

Mr McGeever, aged 71, with a former address at Nirvana, Ballywinna, Craughwell, Co Galway, and more recently in Clontarf, Dublin 3, entered the guilty plea moments before the trial was due to begin at Galway Circuit Criminal Court.

In a barely audible voice in front of a large jury panel, McGeever replied “guilty” to a single charge of giving false information to gardaí on dates between January 29 and February 28, 2013.

The facts in a second charge of giving false information — where he told gardaí he had been falsely imprisoned, assaulted, and threatened with harm during the same six-week period — were also admitted.

The sentence hearing was told McGeever fabricated the entire story in a bid to shake off Irish and international creditors who lost money in failed investments he had undertaken on their behalf in Dubai, following the economic crash in 2008.

Detective John Keating told the court that McGeever was found by a local couple lying on the side of the road near Ballinamore, Co Leitrim, at 9.40pm on January 29, 2013.

“They noticed a man on the side of the road, 7km from Ballinamore,” he said.

“He appeared to be down and out. He appeared to be in very poor condition. They gave him a lift to Ballinamore. He said he had been dumped on the side of the road from the back of a van.

“The couple told him they would bring him to Ballinamore Garda Station, but he declined and asked to be taken to Carrick-on-Shannon and not to a Garda station. They insisted on bringing him to Ballinamore Garda Station.”

McGeever told gardaí in Ballinamore he had been abducted at gunpoint from his property in Craughwell on May 27, 2012.

Gardaí were concerned about his medical condition, as he was in bad physical shape. he was transferred briefly to Mullingar hospital.

He subsequently gave eight statements to gardaí alleging that he had been kidnapped, assaulted, and ill-treated.

Det Keating said that McGeever was consistent in all his statements that he had been abducted at gunpoint from his home and held 6m underground in a steel container for eight months, with no lighting, heating, or sanitary facilities.

He said a six-week investigation got under way, involving 19 gardaí, most of whom worked exclusively on the probe because of the claims McGeever made of being kidnapped at gunpoint.

A total of 3,038 man-hours, costing the taxpayer €86,851 in Garda travel expenses and subsistence allowances, was spent on the investigation, he said.

“A large number of inquiries were carried out around the country and a number of anomalies appeared,” said Det Keating.

“I was of the opinion he had fabricated his version of his abduction.”

McGeever was arrested in Craughwell on March 14, 2013. He was brought to Gort Garda Station and interviewed on four occasions.

“He maintained his stance and continued with the pretence during the first three interviews, but during the fourth interview, he made full admissions that he had fabricated his story to the gardaí and he gave his reasons for doing so,” said Det Keating.

When McGeever finally “came clean” to gardaí, he said: “I’m very relieved to get this off my chest and I wish to thank the gardaí.

“I’m very sorry for wasting the very valuable man-hours of the gardaí.”

John Jordan, defending, told the sentence hearing his client would be 72 this year.

“He did something incredibly stupid because of certain stress factors in his life at the time,” he said, adding that “his long-term partner died of terminal cancer in November 2013”.

Mr Jordan explained that McGeever got involved in property developments in Dubai. “However, after the worldwide recession in 2008, considerable money was owed to investors, particularly here in Ireland, and he was under pressure from those creditors to make good on those investments.”

Det Keating agreed with counsel that McGeever had hoped that by creating the account of his kidnapping a number of his creditors would back off and have nothing more to do with him.

He said McGeever spent 16 days on remand in Castlerea prison in July and August 2013 before taking up bail.

Mr Jordan said that, by pleading guilty, McGeever had saved the State the further expense of running a trial in front of a jury.

Judge Rory McCabe said the gardaí have enough to do rather than chase false trails.

He noted McGeever had only pleaded guilty at the last moment in a trial which had been estimated to take two weeks.

In mitigation, he said the guilty plea was of considerable value in not wasting the court’s time and brought some justice for the taxpayers, whom he said were ultimately “footing the bill”.

Taking McGeever’s age and previous good record into account, he said the appropriate sentence was two years in prison.

“If I send him to prison, the taxpayer will have to pay for his upkeep; to house, clothe, and feed him, so I will suspend the sentence for five years,” said the judge.